To be SO fed up with not having a home?!

[missyelloww]

I'll keep this as short as possible but it has been a few years in the making!

DP and I lived in Cornwall when we found out we we're expecting DD. In December 2018 we moved in with DP's parents (approx 150 miles from Cornwall) temporarily as we wanted to be closer to family when DD was born. The plan was to wait until she was a few months old and then find somewhere of our own to rent.

We have now been looking for over a year and I am absolutely at my wits ends with the constant let-downs and rejections. Living with PIL has always been temporary (we thought we would be out by Christmas 2019 at the latest!) so we are crammed into one room with most of our belongings in the garage. Whilst I am so grateful that PIL are letting us stay here, we are all in need of a bit of space, and DP and I are so desperate to have a home of our own again. We must have enquired about hundreds of properties and gotten absolutely no where. Either they're already gone by the time we ring up or there are no agents to take us for a viewing.

We have put offers in on 4 out of the 5 properties we have managed to view, and they have all been turned down. 2 of those properties are still on the market 3 months later!

Since Covid we have stopped looking due to viewings being stopped (understandable, obviously!) On a whim, I looked on Rightmove yesterday afternoon. Found a beautiful property - well within our budget, exactly what we are looking for. It had only been added on Rightmove 12 hours before. Rang and asked about a virtual tour, and they said they would get back to us within 24 hours. We said that as long as we could have some more pictures of specific things we would happily put a deposit down without an in person viewing.

Just received a voicemail saying that as they can't do viewings the property has been taken off of the market until at least July. I am so frustrated! We are SO desperate to move, but it seems that no one wants to take our money?! Has anyone been in a similar situation before? Is there anyway we can make ourselves more appealing to landlords?

Yes I'm afraid it probably doesn't matter if you earn 'enough'. As long as you are competing against people who earn much more than you, you would have to be incredibly lucky to be chosen. It really sucks but if that's the reality, then you might need to start talking about a Plan B. You can't stay with your parents forever.

Is there anywhere not too far away that has a more normal renting process?

Have you thought about applying for social housing?

I really feel for you, OP. I haven't read every single comment so apologies if this has already been mentioned, but how about applying to join the list for social housing? The fact that the three of you are all crammed into one room and that (presumably?) you don't have a right to stay where you are should mean you'd be in with a decent chance. If you got somewhere, you'd have a secure home of your own (more security to stay put than you'd have from a private landlord) and cheap rent while you tried to save for a house deposit.

God id stay put op.

Keep saving massively and live on a very, basic income of £150 a week or so and hoard as much money as you can.

By this time next year you could be home owners, never having to do the pick me dance in front of landlords ever again

six months rent upfront is actually a bad idea as that is a drug dealer tactic

Six months upfront is a tactic that is very effective when people who may not meet income or credit criteria or have some capital, or where they are on benefits and landlords are unwilling to accept claimants as tenants. It gives the landlord the security of 6 months rent "in hand" so to speak, and therefore some protection against them falling into rent arrears.

I worked supporting homeless people and people at risk of homelessness for 10 years, and this was an invaluable strategy if someone had cash in the bank from a divorce settlement, injury damages, benefit arrears or similar. Letting agencies were more than happy to put this forward to landlords and never, ever was there any suggestion that they suspected the money was ill-gotten gains.

I'd recommend it as a course of action if the alternative was living with in-laws indefinitely.

Sorry, that should read AND have some capital, not "or"

Sorry if I’ve been unclear - we are looking to rent in the area that we are currently living. This is where we both work, not 150 miles away!

We would absolutely love to buy, but simply cannot afford it at the moment, or even in the nearish future so that’s not an option for us at the moment! We know exactly how much we could borrow and it would take us years and years to save enough of a deposit!

I'm a landlord OP. There's 3 things I look for in a potential tenant.

Will they trash the property?
Will they pay their rent?
Will they hassle me constantly?

After a while you get a feel for people, so I always meet all my potential tenants. I also always, always reference them, through a professional provider who checks previous landlords. However, I wouldn't reference them until I'd decided they would be the most suitable tenant. If they fail referencing and can't provide a guarantor I'd then offer to #2. (never had to go to 3)

Id ask the letting agents why you're struggling to even get past the first stage! I'm going to assume you are, so please don't be offended but, things I look out for are:

Messaging me out of business hours. A big no no at this stage, if they don't respect that, they're going to hassle me a lot.

Are they clean, tidy and well presented. If they aren't it's a good indicator they'll treat your home the same.

What do they do for a living? Why are they moving, all questions give me a feel for whether they'll be reliable.

From what you say, there's nothing obvious as to why you're struggling, I can only think that, as children can cause more damage than a tenant without children (can, remember landlords have to think worst case scenario, my current tenants actually have kept the house spotless with 4 kids)

Definitely ask the agents what you can do to appeal, or look to rent direct via gumtree etc so you get to meet the landlord direct.

OK, this is left of field but why not post a 'wanted' on Property Tribes. It's a forum for Landlords (most of whom are nice people looking to rent nice houses/flats to nice people ). I've seen posts before from people looking for property in specific areas.

Where are you? The offering above seems strange in rental. Have you put stuff on local fb pages rather than going through agency?

When I was renting once I saw a brand new house come up for rent which was perfect. When I called up I was told call back Monday as viewings couldn’t go ahead due to snow but quite a few interested. So I decided to go there for opening Monday with the money needed for a credit check and paid for it before seeing the property which got me the house. Was a good gamble as lived there 9 happy years

We live in the Seattle area and due to Amazon being here and rapidly expanding (adding 30,000 jobs a year) plus Microsoft, Facebook, you name it, the market is very competitive. We found the house we bought by writing letters to the community we were interested in, we were offered 3 houses that were not on the market yet. We bought our house with a real estate lawyer and not an agent.

I might try this. Focus on the area where you want to live, visit or call all the local businesses that are open (supermarkets, pharmacies) and ask if you can put a card or info in their window. Make it very noticeable, in fluorescent card or something. If you can't visit, call them and ask if you can mail them a card to pout in the window). Also network, find online forums in those areas or organizations (call the local churches or faith organizations, old people homes etc) and spread the word that you are looking for a place. Also definitely tell the people working behind the counter everywhere you go. They will very likely be locals, ask them if they have any leads or know any local landlords. Make cards to give them if they don't want to take your number.

I got my first (very well paid job) in the USA because I overheard my future boss telling the staff at her local coffee shop that she was looking for someone and to spread the word! I was in the line behind her and asked her about the job and she interviewed me the same day! I was at work the following morning.

It’ll be the baby putting off.

P.S.BTW you need to make an Excel file and check back with all your leads every week, if you just call once they will forget about you. Call them regularly and be friendly so you create a good impression and they are more likely to want to help you. Obviously call all the local estate agents too.

Oh yeah, I agree with Darbs76 when we first came back to the Seattle area, trying to find a rental house was a nightmare. We had actually given up (we were just on a look-see visit and ready to fly home the next morning) when a rental property suddenly popped up at 6pm that night. I called the estate agent and begged her to show us the property immediately and it was perfect. We snapped it up and completed all the paperwork etc that night. The next morning the agent said she had 15 calls asked to see the property. So being ready to pounce when the right property comes up is crucial. Think like the landlord/agent and make things as easy for them as possible.

Are you very young?

Are you very young?

22 & 23. Have been renting since we were 18/19 and didn't have an issue before.

It’ll be the baby putting off.

I'm sure it is off putting to some, but we're not the first people looking to rent with a baby/young child! I never would've imagined it would take this long.

Covered in tattoos? Judging by the last thread on them, you wouldn’t get far.
Are you meeting the landlords of just agents? Is there no Facebook group you could go on to ask about properties? Ours shifts loads this way.

the only thing I can think of is that they don’t want to rent to a couple with a baby

This. Others have posted it's the baby and I think that sadly this is the case. We rented forever (over 10 years) and we couldn't have a baby where we were but it happened and we had to get out. So many landlords are heartless about families..so worried their precious "show homes " (ha ha!) get damaged as a result. DS was the best thing that happened to us as luckily we managed to get a shared ownership place. But as others have said here you could apply for social housing. The sooner you do it the better. In our area you have to bid on properties.
I wish you all the best x

Have you tried local Facebook site? We often have locals on our fb asking for places for rent.

We went to CAB at the beginning of the year and were told that we would not be eligible for social housing as the house that we live in at the moment is not overcrowded? PIL have a number of bedrooms that they use for other things (office, gym etc)

We have only met agents so far, will definitely look into Facebook groups!

The last time I rented a property through a letting agent they wouldn't let me view any properties until I had registered with them. That involved filling out a registration form giving my bank and employment details. Then I had to wait around two weeks whilst they got references from my employer, bank and a character reference.

Have you completed the registration process with any agencies so you're good to go when a property comes up.

Can you prove that you can afford to pay the rent on DP's salary alone? They might be concerned that you won't return to work when you've had your baby, leaving you unable to afford the rent.

We have registered with every agency we can find that has properties in our area at our budget.

DD is 13mo and I have been back at work since she was 5mo - so that's not an issue!

I've a friend who recently lost his job due to his inability to find a place to rent. He doesn't drive, had got a really, really good and well paid job to go to, and thought that moving into the nearest city would be a breeze.

I warned him (three of my kids live in that city and struggled to find a rental), he found loads of places suitable, went to see them - and was turned down for all of them.

In the end he had to tell the job that he couldn't do it - where he currently lives is more than 30 miles away, no transport. Poor chap really thought he was on to a winner when he got the job, now he's back trapped in the local, poorly-paid job market.

Finding somewhere to rent is no longer the easy 'I like that one, I'll take it' that it used to be when I was renting. Now it's a free for all and the landlord has all the power.

I think the COVID situation is complicating things right now. Maybe you could start looking again when lockdown is relaxed, OP?